[62.24] Direct Detection of Planets and Brown Dwarfs from Antarctica

B. Macintosh (LLNL)

Direct Detection of Planets and Brown Dwarfs from
Antarctica.

The low near-infrared background of the Antarctic sky makes
it a promising site for direct detection of warm
supermassive planets and brown dwarfs. However, this will be
offset by the likely small size of Antarctic telescopes
relative to other sites, and the presence of methane bands
in brown dwarf spectra at those very wavelengths at which
the antarctic background is most advantageous. We present
sensitivity calculations comparing Antarctic and
conventional telescopes in field and companion searches. In
field surveys of young star-forming regions Antarctic
telescopes might have some advantages, while sensitivity to
brown dwarf or planetary companions to nearby stars scales
sharply with telescope size and seeing and hence favors
larger telescopes at other sites.

The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: bmac@igpp.llnl.gov